Marie Axton

SOURCE: "Miraculous Succession: The Phoenix and the Turtle (1601)," in The Queen's Two Bodies: Drama and the Elizabethan Succession, Royal Historical Society, 1977, pp. 116-30.

In the following essay, Axton focuses on The Phoenix and Turtle as "a politically philosophical poem " related to the succession of Elizabeth I.

as when The bird of wonder dies, the maiden phoenix, Her ashes new create another heir As great in admiration as herself, So shall she leave her blessedness to one— When heaven shall call her from this cloud of darkness— Who from the sacred ashes of her honour Shall star-like rise, as great in fame as she was, And so stand fix'd. Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror, That were the servants of this chosen infant, Shall then be his, and like a vine grow to him; Wherever the bright sun of heaven shall shine, His honour and the...